Content Strategy
What is an editorial calendar?
An editorial calendar is a schedule of planned editorial content, usually articles or blog posts, organised by topic and publication date. It maps what will be written, when it will be published and how it fits wider themes or campaigns. Many businesses use the term interchangeably with content calendar, though an editorial calendar is typically narrower and more publication-focused.
Why it matters
Editorial planning stops a blog running on whatever comes to mind each week. When topics are decided ahead of time and tied to themes, seasons or campaigns, each article has a reason to exist, and gaps, repetition and last-minute scrambles become visible before they happen.
Editorial calendar vs content calendar
In everyday use the two are near-synonyms, and many businesses need only one document. Where the distinction is drawn, an editorial calendar focuses on planned editorial output, article topics, angles and publication dates, while a content calendar covers everything a business publishes across every channel, social posts and campaigns included. If you run one blog and a couple of social channels, a single combined calendar is usually the sensible choice.
What a useful editorial calendar records
The working title and angle of each planned article
The audience or question it serves
Its planned publication date and current status
Any theme, season or campaign it belongs to
Related terms
A content calendar is the broader all-channel schedule, a content strategy decides what deserves planning in the first place, and each planned article is best specified in a content brief.